Hamas: Trick or Truce?

[notfullofit]

19/06/2008
By Tariq Alhomayed

The Hamas leadership delivered good news to the Palestinians, and to the people of Gaza specifically, as it announced that a happy ending was in sight with respect to Israel since a six-month truce between Hamas and Israel had been reached.

There is an obvious euphoria within the Hamas leadership. It is as if these leaders have declared the establishment of the Palestinian state whilst in reality the matter relates to a truce that may not last.

This truce emerged after strong advice and many warnings were given to the Hamas leadership against its fruitless tampering with the Palestinian cause and the Palestinians. Everybody knows that the “anti-tank” missiles will not solve anything and that using Palestinian suffering as a card to be played by foreign parties is unacceptable.

Khalid Mishal, the leader of Hamas, said, “A lasting truce would be beneficial to 1.5 million Palestinians who have suffered from the Israeli blockade. It will be a great relief for Israel if it also commits to the truce.” In response, one could only ask Mishal: who else undermined Palestinian unity, exposed the people of Gaza to all these crimes and humiliation and turned them into pawns in the hands of the Iranians and Syrians apart from yourselves?

Israel is concerned with conciliation as it has nothing to lose from it. But the question here is: can Hamas’ accomplishment with Israel be considered a truce or is it one of Hamas’ new tricks that strived for more talks and agreements? It became clear that Hamas does not care about Palestinian suffering inasmuch as it as wanted to accomplish gains for the movement itself.

Hamas wants to kill a number of birds with one stone. Mishal and his group want to improve ties with the Egyptians after the Rafah crossing crisis and to alleviate the uneasiness that exists amongst the second rank of Hamas leaders as a result of the deteriorating situation in Gaza after the Palestinian Authority was overthrown.

more...
http://www.asharqalawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=13137

[sourmilk]

1. Maybe they just need some time to reload?

I especially loved this sentence:

"Hamas wants to kill a number of birds with one stone."

It's black humour, but it DID make me smile...

[sharesunited]

2. Meanwhile, Hezbollah prepares to kill Jews worldwide.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=599737

[Vegasaurus]

3. Hamas is nothing if not transparent in its goals

Of course they don't care about Palestinian suffering.


We have seen that throughout the year. They would rather their people 'starve' and sit in the dark than stop shooting rockets.

Let's see if they can really keep a truce (doubtful), and if the goal of the truce, for however long they do keep it, is to rearm with bigger and more dangerous weapons.

Since Hamas is clear on its goal of killing all Jews and taking back Israel, that is clearly the point of this "lull".